1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sun-visor provided in a vehicle having an occupant restraint system.
2. DESCRIPTION OF RELEVANT ART
In a vehicle, conventionally, a sun-visor, which is used as sunshade by passengers seating on the driver seat or the passenger seat, is provided. This sun-visor is composed of a shaft and a sun-visor body. The sun-visor body is used for blocking off the outside light. One end of the shaft is supported at the roof of the vehicle and another end thereof is inserted into the sun-visor body.
The sun-visor is normally dabbed or rested against the roof, and is swung downwardly and/or laterally around the shaft at the time of using. When the sun-visor is swung toward the windshield, since the outside light is prevented from passing into the vehicle by the sun-visor body, the sun-visor plays a roll of sunshade.
When the sun-visor body is pivoted toward the side door from this location, the sun-visor serves as the sunshade for preventing the passing through of the outside light shining from the side direction. At that time, the sun-visor is placed along the window of the side door so as to be in parallel with respect to the window of the side door.
In the vehicle, furthermore, an occupant restraint system for protecting the passengers from a side-face impact etc. may be provided.
As an example of such types of the occupant restraint system, an inflatable curtain apparatus can be given. In the inflatable curtain apparatus, an air bag is stored ranging over the regions from the front pillar to a rear pillar through a roof side rail of the vehicle. This air bag is quickly inflated when the operation of the inflatable curtain apparatus is demanded.
When the air bag stored it the roof side rail is inflated, for example, since the inflated air bag pushes open the roof-garnish into the vehicle cabin, a space is formed between the roof-garnish and the roof side rail. Thus, the air bag is sprung out through the space and is inflated downwardly along the windows of the side door(s).
When the inflatable curtain apparatus is operated while using the sun-visor for blocking off the outside light shining from the side direction, in other words, the sun-visor is positioned along the window of the side-door, the inflating characteristic of the air bag may be changed. To be more precise, the inflating direction and range of the air bag is changed by the sun-visor, and the role of the air bag cannot be fully achieved.
When the roof-garnish pushed open by the inflation of the air bag is bumped against the sun-visor body of the sun-visor, since the displacement of the roof-garnish is interfered with by the sun-visor, the space formed for allowing the inflation of the air bag becomes narrow. Thus, the inflation of the air bag toward the vehicle cabin may be hampered or prevented. When the sun-visor body of the sun-visor is positioned on the inflating orbit of the air bag, furthermore, the inflation of the air bag may be hampered or prevented by the sun-visor.
The present invention aims at ensuring the inflation of the air bag irrespective of the position of the sun-visor.
For attaining this object, there is provided a sun-visor in a vehicle having an occupant restraint system for protecting the occupant from side-impact, said sun-visor comprising; a sun-visor body disposed in a cabin of said vehicle and used for blocking off the outside light; a shaft, one end of said shaft is rotatably supported at a base fixed to the roof of said vehicle, another end of said shaft is inserted into said sun-visor body, and said shaft has a curved part on a region exposed from said sun-visor body and said base; and the shaft also has a low strength region provided on or about said curved part; whereby said shaft is situated so as to be deformed when said occupant restraint system is operated.
According to the sun-visor having such defined structure, the shaft is deformed at the low strength region when the occupant restraint system is operated. To be more precise, the space for allowing the inflation of the air bag stored in the occupant restraint system is secured because the sun-visor is easily deformed by the roof-garnish 14 pushed out by the inflated air bag. Thus, the certain inflation of the air bag is achieved irrespective of the position of the sun-visor.
In the present invention, preferably, said low strength region comprises a notch formed on said curved part of said shaft. According to the present invention, the certain deformation of the shaft can be achieved because the excess load, which is brought about by the operation of the occupant restraint system and is applied to the sun-visor, is concentrated on the notch of the curved part 17c.